For many, recruiting employees is a never-ending challenge. From a low response rate to poor candidates applying, it can be frustrating, to say the least.
However, reviewing your current practices can reveal areas for improvement and, in turn, boost your recruitment pipeline.
Episodic Recruiting
The cardinal mistake of poor digital recruiting is only bothering to seek out job candidates when there is a dire need.
“Many companies wait until they’re desperate, which leads to lowering standards, whereas they could be more selective when operating in an ‘always hiring’ mindset,” says Carlos del Pozo, CEO of Team Engine, based in Boulder, Colorado.
Instead of treating recruiting like a task, del Pozo suggests seeing as it as an ongoing process. It’s hard to build a consistent employer brand when you’re only posting sporadically.
Poor Company Branding
Tito Caceres, managing director of Bloom Talent Solutions, based in Miami, Florida, says you cannot overlook your digital presence.
“If you’re not standing out and your branding is weak, they’re looking at you as someone that’s just not staying ahead of the curve,” Caceres says.
Your branding should highlight your company culture as well as what makes your organization unique. You need to have a compelling reason why someone should choose your business over a competitor.
“If you’re looking to attract top talent into your organization, you need to recognize that nowadays, the first thing anyone does is go on your website, and it’s so instant,” Caceres says.
Failing to Personalize Postings
Caceres says that too often job descriptions read like contracts.
“There’s really no soul, no hook,” Caceres says. “Why should you join us? Give specifics about your company and things that are different from your competitors. Every company is different in this industry. I don’t care who you are, even if you do the same thing. Be more specific, and give it a little bit more personalization, specifically job descriptions.”
Caceres also says typically companies are casting too broad a net instead of attracting the people who are going to be a good fit for their specific culture.
Del Pozo says a lot of times companies make the mistake of advertising the job by posting job descriptions instead of creating job ads.
“Job advertisements should lead with the company’s unique employer proposition – its values, work culture, and/or opportunities for growth – not lead with all the requirements and disqualifiers,” del Pozo says. “The goal should be to have a lot of motivated applicants, not just the folks who are applying to every job in sight.”
Caceres says featuring a career path in your job descriptions could make a huge difference in whether you attract better talent as many companies are neglecting that aspect.
Overreliance on Job Postings
You also cannot simply create a posting on a job board and call it a day.
“People are just posting and waiting, instead of being proactive and sourcing and selling their company,” Caceres says.
Mike Voories, founder and CEO of Business Resources One, based in Brighton, Michigan, agrees you shouldn’t limit your approach to posting jobs online and relying on actively searching individuals.
“We post jobs too, but consider this going after the low-hanging fruit — sometimes we get lucky and find a great candidate who’s actively looking for a new job,” Voories says. “A large majority of our best candidates come from passive recruiting. Using digital tools to tell the world you have an opening isn’t enough. The tools and technologies available today are quite powerful and are only getting better. My advice is to leverage technology to locate and engage ideal candidates instead of waiting for them to apply.”
Slow Response Rate
Once you actually have candidates applying, don’t squander these relationships by keeping applicants in limbo.
“Candidates that are good, they’re off the market in days, not weeks,” Caceres says.
Setting up automations or guidelines for how quickly your recruiting team should respond to candidates can make a serious impression. Caceres says frequently, with skilled labor, whoever reaches out first is the company that will end up hiring that employee.
“Text messaging works especially well to reach people quickly and keep them engaged,” del Pozo says. “We’ve also seen companies boost their hiring results and ROI on job board spend significantly by using automation to make it scalable and consistent.”
Lack of Performance Tracking
Don’t fly blind with your digital recruiting efforts. Track the drop-off points, conversion rates and the time it takes to fill a role. All these metrics will help your team determine what you’re doing well, along with what could use improvement.
Terry Shaffer, co-founder and CEO of Summit Lawn and Landscape, based in Grandview, Missouri, says they measure and track all of their efforts through the Team Engine platform.
Caceres recommends hiring someone with expertise in technology who can effectively integrate various digital recruiting tools into your business.
“If you hire one of these people, your recruiting is going to increase exponentially,” Caceres says. “Don’t just think that you can do it on your own. It’s time-consuming, and I do think that there’s a massive opportunity in it.”
